LA CROSSE HISTORY
unbound
THE LA CROSSE AREA'S HISTORY, DIGITIZED

Labor & Unions


Resources

—Labor—


Subject:
La Crosse Area Public Schools, Joint District No. 5 (Wis.)
Collective bargaining -- Teachers -- Wisconsin -- La Crosse
La Crosse (Wis.) -- Board of Education
La Crosse Education Association (Wis.)
Creator:
Dyar, Harold
Description:
It was the purpose of this study (1) to outline briefly the history of some selected negotiations procedures between the Negotiating Committee of the La Crosse Education Association and the Personnel Committee of the Board of Education, La Crosse City Public School District No. 5, et al, 1963-1968, (2) to describe some of the problems relating to the procedures of negotiations, (3) to make recommendations for improving negotiation procedures. In investigating this problem, the minutes of meetings between 1963-1968 of the (1) Salary Committee, (2) the Classroom Teachers Negotiating Committee and the Personnel Committee of the Board of Education, and (3) the Executive Committee of the La Crosse Education Association were reviewed. This was followed by a study of the literature on teacher's salary negotiations obtained from (1) the Wisconsin Education Association, (2) the National Education Association, and (3) the American Federation of Teachers. A search for material related to the topic was conducted in the Wisconsin State University at La Crosse and La Crosse Public Libraries, and from the files of the La Crosse Tribune. There were some legal procedures, but not specific practices, that could be used to establish a set of rules for negotiations. There were too many differences in communities, leadership, and school board-teacher relationships which necessitate different practices in different local situations. At the date (July, 1968) of the conclusion of this paper, negotiations remained deadlocked between the board of education and the education association of the city of La Crosse. Nevertheless, it was the opinion of the researcher, that the representatives of the two bodies made good progress in organizing and making their start in negotiations.
UW-L Seminar Paper
Subject:
International Association of Machinists. Lodge 21 (La Crosse, Wis.) -- History
Machinists -- Labor unions --Wisconsin -- La Crosse -- History
Trane Company -- History
Creator:
Knutson, Raymond W.
Description:
A small group of the Trane Company employees of La Crosse, Wisconsin, began a labor movement in 1933. The original group became affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and was known as the Cliffwood Federal Labor Union, Local 18558. Although "Cliffwood" was dropped from the title, the organization continued to be known as F. L. U. 18558. Major accomplishments under the local organization included the right to act as the bargaining agent for the production and maintenance workers, a union shop, wage increases, fringe benefits, and a pension program. In 1958 the local body voted to join the International Association of Machinists. It became Lodge 21, of the I. A. M. The sources used for this paper include official union records, letters from the union files, questionnaires to early union members and local newspapers. The paper is not meant to be an exhaustive study, but rather to record the major achievements of the union.
UW-L Seminar Paper
Author:
T.L. Hicks
Subject:
Amalgamated Transit Union. Local 519 (La Crosse, Wis.) -- History
Labor unions -- Wisconsin -- La Crosse
Local transit -- Wisconsin -- La Crosse -- History
Creator:
Hicks, Terry L.
Subject:
Labor unions -- Wisconsin -- La Crosse -- History
Labor movement -- Wisconsin -- La Crosse -- History
Creator:
Hicks, Terry L.
Description:
Early La Crosse living conditions -- The American Labor Movement -- Local labor bodies and publications -- Local union's history -- Locally held labor conventions -- Striking unions -- City wide strike of 1920 -- La Crosses' most violent strike -- Striking the Rubber Mills -- Founding of the Trane Machinists Union -- Telephone strikes -- Labor Day in La Crosse -- La Crosse mayoral influence on labor -- Fallen workers -- Wages, jobs and the cost of living -- Appendix: Labor council officers -- Local union officers -- Union employment -- La Crosse consumer prices -- Officers & delegates of the Western Wisconsin AFL-CIO -- Labor council affiliates & current officers. A history of organized labor in the La Crosse area.
Author:
State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Subject:
Labor movement -- Wisconsin
Wisconsin -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
Creator:
Merk, Frederick 1887-1977
Description:
Includes bibliographical footnotes.; Frederick Merk was an American historian. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1887. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1911 and then worked for five years at the Wisconsin State Historical Society. In 1916 he went to Harvard University to study under the direction of Frederick Jackson Turner. Upon Turner's retirement in 1924, Merk took up his position with Turner's support. He taught at Harvard until 1956, and oversaw several dozen graduate students.; Digital scan from: Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin for 1914. Manuscript. 1915.
Series: Separate (State Historical Society of Wisconsin) ; no. 162.
Author:
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Oral History Program
Subject:
Norcross, Henry -- Interviews
Oral history
Oral history -- Wisconsin -- La Crosse
Interviews -- Wisconsin -- La Crosse
La Crosse (Wis.) -- History
Recreation -- Wisconsin -- La Crosse
Railroad engineers -- Wisconsin -- La Crosse
Railroads -- Employees
Labor unions -- Wisconsin -- La Crosse
La Crosse (Wis.) -- Social life and customs
Description:
Henry Norcross (b. 1899) describes his family background and life on French Island. Topics include but are not limited to: German ancestry, festivals, Milwaukee Railroad, farming, French Island and La Crosse tensions, education, winter, drowning accidents, diseases and quarantine (mumps, measles, chicken pox), Frank Powell and Buffalo Bill Cody, circus, summer fairs, Mary Hauck (doctor), early electric cars, Dr. McLoone and Bessie Moore murders, home remedies, Rubber Mills, railroad engineer, anti-German propaganda during WWI, Prohibition, bootleggers, tobacco usage, Great Depression, unemployment, being member of Ku Klux Klan (KKK) (audio cuts out here in the middle of his story), Lodge 754, union strikes and involvement, anti-Black racism and his perceptions of white working-class discrimination. Content warning: this interview contains racist ideas and language.
Tape 2
Tape 3
Tape 4
Author:
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Oral History Program
Subject:
Lange, Norman -- Interviews
Breweries -- Wisconsin -- La Crosse
Labor unions -- Wisconsin -- La Crosse
La Crosse (Wis.) -- Social life and customs
United States -- History -- 1945-1953
United States -- History -- 1953-1961
Fraternal organizations -- Wisconsin -- La Crosse
Description:
Lange discusses returning to La Crosse, Wisconsin, following service in World War II. He details his work history and union involvement, describing the brewing industry and his work for Peerless Brewery and his career with the La Crosse Cooler Company. He also discusses his membership in fraternal organizations.
Author:
University of Wisconsin
Subject:
Labor supply -- La Crosse County (Wis.)
Creator:
Francour, Alfred J.
Description:
A master of science thesis
Author:
Geo. E. Taylor & Co.
Creator:
Taylor, George E.
Description:
This collection includes the newspaper and its transcriptions. The Wisconsin Labor Advocate was a newspaper published in La Crosse in 1886-1887 with political and financial backing from Dr. D. Frank "White Beaver" Powell. La Crosse was a hotbed of Labor political party activity in the 1880s and the Wisconsin Labor Advocate was one of at least four La Crosse area Labor-related newspapers from that time. What makes the Wisconsin Labor Advocate unique was its editor and owner: George Edwin Taylor. Taylor was an African-American, born in Arkansas in 1857. As a black business owner, he was an anomaly in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in the 1880s. Taylor got his start in publishing working at other La Crosse newspapers. He also became increasingly interested in politics as reflected in his editorship of the Wisconsin Labor Advocate. The last existing edition of the paper dates from August 6, 1887 and George Edwin Taylor left La Crosse soon afterwards. He maintained a life-long interest in politics and by 1904 had become involved in an all African-American political party called the National Liberty Party. Taylor accepted the nomination of that party in 1904 as its candidate for the office of the U.S. President. In doing so, Taylor was the first candidate of a national African-American party for the U.S. presidency.
Subject:
La Crosse Rubber Mills Company (La Crosse, Wis.) -- History
Working class -- Wisconsin -- La Crosse -- History
Rubber industry workers -- Labor unions -- Wisconsin -- La Crosse -- History
La Crosse (Wis.) -- History
Creator:
Lindner, Barbara Jane
Description:
A PhD dissertation. In an attempt to understand the character of American unionism, labor historians have begun to focus on single companies. They examine the relationship between union activity, ethnicity, class, and skill levels of the workers at the companies to discover if, and to what extent, these factors contributed to the success or failure of the workers in their unionizing efforts.
This study examines unionizing attempts at the La Crosse Rubber Mills Company between 1915 and 1935, a company located in North La Crosse, a working-class community in west central Wisconsin.